The present invention relates, to gloves worn during athletic sports. In particular, the invention relates to interlocking gloves which improve the performance and skill of an athlete participating in an athletic sport which requires the athlete to hold and grip a piece of sports equipment such as a baseball bat.
In baseball, softball, and similar sports, it is essential for proper swing of the bat that the batter's hands maintain proper grip placement and proper knuckle alignment throughout the entire swing. There is a tendency, however, especially for young children and beginning adults to rotate their hands in opposite directions on the bat while waiting for a pitch or during the swing. When this happens, the batter loses proper knuckle alignment, and the bat is forced through the swing at an improper angle thereby resulting in an improper follow-through of the batter's swing.
In order to create a better "grip" on the bat and in order to eliminate some of the natural "slipping" that may occur, many batters wear a batting glove or a pair of batting gloves. Although the batting gloves heretofore known may enhance the batter's grip and prevent some degree of slippage on the bat, many batters still tend to rotate their hands while waiting for a pitch or unintentionally during the follow-through of the swing.
As a result of these deficiencies, the gloves of the prior art were often modified to add padding or slip resistant materials in a variety of areas. While the batting gloves shown in the prior art provide some degree of protection to the batters and may prevent some degree of accidental slippage, none of them are designed to, or successfully, prevent a batter from rotating his hands while gripping a bat.
While the prior art discloses a number of interlocking gloves intended for use by athletes, none of the previously known athletic gloves has a design in which a solution to maintaining proper knuckle alignment of a batter has been taught.
By way of example, the prior art shows U.S. Pat. No. 3,508,280 entitled INTERLOCKING GOLF GLOVES which issued on Apr. 28, 1970 to C. W. Osborn. The gloves described by Osborn must be designed for use by either a right-handed, or a left-handed, golfer. In one embodiment, the gloves include an elongated fastener strip on the thumb of one glove which interlocks with a rectangular strip in the palm of the other glove. A second set of fasteners on the tip of the little finger of one glove interlocks with a U-shaped piece on the rear of the other glove. The issue of flexibility of the fastener strips is not present, as the thumb of a golfer is substantially straight in the standard golf grip, whereas the little finger strip does not go over any joints. In an alternative embodiment shown by Osborn, there are cooperative fasteners on a single glove and on the grip of the golf club itself.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,587,673 entitled VOLLEYBALL PRACTICE GLOVES which issued on May 13, 1986 to G. A. Boliard describes interlocking gloves, used by volleyball players to hold their hands together in a "clapping" position, whereby a player can practice certain volleyball motions, such as the two-hand underhanded volley or forearm bump. These gloves are not designed or intended to be used with any other equipment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,665,565 entitled GOLF GLOVE which issued on May 19, 1987 to T. J. Odom describes a pair of "interlocking" golf gloves. However, the Odom patent refers repeatedly to the use of "loop and pile" fasteners. As known by those skilled in the art, fastening strips, such as those known by the trademark "VELCRO.RTM." include a "loop" portion and a complementary "hook" portion. The "hook" portion includes small deformable hooks which releasably interlock with the pile of the "loop" portion. Thus, the use of the term "loop and pile" fasteners by Odom appears to be incorrect, particularly since Odom refers to one type of such "loop and pile" fasteners as being available under the "VELCRO.RTM." trademark. The gloves described by Odom are not symmetrical, and they are very similar to those described in the Osborn patent described above.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,028,050 entitled GOLFER'S GRIP TRAINING DEVICE which issued on Jul. 2, 1991 to H. Freyer describes training gloves for golfers in which a hook (or loop) strip on the outer portion of a thumb of one glove interlocks with a complementary loop (or hook) fastener in the palm of the other glove, while a hook (or loop) fastener which is between the first and second fingers of the first glove interlocks with loop (or hook) fasteners which run along the outside of the little finger of the other glove. The configuration of the coacting portions of the gloves disclosed by Freyer are not symmetrical, so different designs are required for left-handed and right-handed golfers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,184,827 entitled AUDIBLE GOLF GLOVES which issued on Feb. 9, 1993 to K. Suttle, et al. includes cooperating thumb and palm strips, much like those described by Freyer. Again, different designs are required for left-handed and right-handed golfers.
U.S. Design Pat. No. 417,312 entitled BATTING GLOVE WITH ATTACHED HOOKS AND LOOPS which issued on Nov. 30, 1999 to S. Hoefs describes an ornamental design for a batting glove with attached hooks and loops. However, this design patent, includes no enabling disclosure sufficient to teach someone skilled in the art how to make batting gloves having the utility of the present invention. In addition, as will be recognized by those skilled in the art, hook and loop fasteners, such as those called VELCRO.RTM., have distinct appearances in that the "loop" material has a "fuzzy" appearance, while the "hook" material has a very uniform, "regular" appearance. In the figures of the drawing in the Hoefs patent, each of the strips which are visible appear to have the "fuzzy" appearance of loop material. Accordingly, it is unclear whether there was any use of loop material, notwithstanding the title of the patent or the description of the figures of the drawing. However, as this is a design patent, fulfilling utilitarian requirements is not a prerequisite, and, as shown and claimed, the gloves in the Hoefs patent need be nothing more than "ornamental".
Thus, none of the foregoing patents, either singly or in combination, discloses or suggests a way to design batting gloves which are intended to interact to keep the hands of a batter together.